Port Townsend woman on sailboat rescued by East Jefferson Fire-Rescue

Published 12:01 am Wednesday, November 5, 2014

PORT TOWNSEND— A Port Townsend woman was rescued last weekend after her sailboat lost electrical power and she was unable to raise her main sail.

The woman was very cold but refused medical attention, said Bill Beezley, spokesman for East Jefferson Fire-Rescue.

The fire department did not provide her name or age.

At 4:04 p.m. Sunday, East Jefferson Fire-Rescue received a call about the boat, which was stranded in Admiralty Inlet about a half-mile from Pigeon Point on Whidbey Island, Beezley said.

While sailing her 16-foot craft solo from Lopez Island to Port Townsend, the woman had lowered her sail with the intention of using her motor to make the rest of the trip, Beezley said.

The electricity failed, and she could not restart the engines, he said. She found she could not raise the lowered sail by herself.

Once she realized she had no means of propulsion, she attempted to place a call to her husband, who was waiting at Fort Worden, but discovered that her phone batteries were dead.

Signaled with flares

She fired two flares. One was spotted by her husband and the other by a Whidbey Island resident, Beezley said.

Both called 9-1-1. Dispatchers were able to determine her location by triangulating the call origins, Beezley said.

Fire department and Coast Guard personnel found her suffering from exposure and unable to grab a rope so she could board a rescue vessel, Beezley said.

Once onshore, she felt better and refused medical attention, Beezley said.

She was reunited with her husband, he added.